Malicious Office (OLE) / .XLSX — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 0961d746e0dbb494…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

35.5 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:43:37 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 6be09f7f7144a5f3c540bdb5676aa52b SHA-1: 29cc4c984c3b18e8b85fb83ddab2a30156fa9e20 SHA-256: 0961d746e0dbb49415694ad5d609efa0c7c87f1586376051e8dcb2a60afe28ca
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical finding. This indicates that the workbook is configured to automatically execute a macro when opened. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN in the Auto_Open macro suggests it is designed to execute arbitrary commands, likely to download and run a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 3

  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    oletools recovered an Auto_Open / Auto_Close entry from an Excel 4.0 macro sheet. The raw BIFF name can be tokenized or partially opaque to byte-string checks, but the recovered macro listing confirms the workbook has an XLM auto-execution entry.
  • XLM Auto_Open with dangerous formula APIs critical OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet contains an Auto_Open / Auto_Close entry and dangerous XLM formula APIs that can invoke programs, write files, or transfer control without VBA.
  • Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet present medium OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN
    Workbook contains an Excel 4.0 macro sheet sub-stream — XLM is rarely seen in modern legitimate workbooks and was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
e266f2511349da04526001286760473a4c7fbefa20f2c786b143340c636b9ea9		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6394 bytes

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